Charles Barsotti

Charles Branum Barsotti (Sep. 28, 1933 – June 16, 2014) was an American cartoonist who contributed gag cartoons to major magazines.

Barsotti died of brain cancer on June 16, 2014, at his home in Kansas City, Missouri, aged 80.

In 1992, his dog character was adopted as a logo by the office supplies company Niceday Ltd, which was taken over the French company Guilbert, leading to the nickname "Niceday pup" in the United Kingdom. On February 26, 1996, the pup also appeared on one of three United Kingdom postage stamps featuring Barsotti's cartoons.

Barsotti received the National Cartoonist Society's Gag Cartoon Award for 1988 for his work.

Barsotti openly opposed the Vietnam War. In 1972, he ran for Congress as the Democratic nominee against incumbent Larry Winn in the third district of Johnson County, Kansas, but faced heavy Republican opposition and dropped out of the race. In a 1986 interview Barsotti said of his campaign:

Barsotti was the cartoon editor of The Saturday Evening Post and a staff cartoonist at The New Yorker beginning in 1970. His work also appeared in Playboy, Punch and Fast Company, among other publications. He was a signature artist whose rounded, elegant, sparsely detailed style evoked both the traditional world of a James Thurber and the contemporary sensibility of a Roz Chast.

Born in San Marcos, Texas in 1933, Barsotti grew up in San Antonio and graduated from Texas State University in 1955. He then served in the Army and worked at the Brown School in San Marcos which was a residential treatment center for people with special needs, whilst studying with the aim of obtaining a master's degree in education.